So last month I mentioned that I had started playing Flames of War. Well, I’ve been working hard on completing my 1750 US Tank Company but I took a break to help out a fellow modeler. One of the club members was having some trouble mastering his first airbrush. He invested in an Iwata airbrush but was having difficulties with thinning the paint properly and getting the brush to perform the way he wanted. He plays Germany and was trying to airbrush his models with the typical late-war ambush scheme.
I spent some time one evening after gaming going over the basics and offering tips and recommendations for getting the mixture and blending correct. As an exercise, I began painting a FoW Panther G Tank model and this is a picture of the initial result. It was painted using Vallejo paints and Isopropyl Alcohol (91%) as the thinner. The results turned out really well because I normally only airbrush using Tamiya paints and Tamiya thinner. By using lower air pressure with the mixture, I was able to complete the ambush scheme without clogging or any overspray the usually plague an airbrush when painting something this small.
This picture shows the model right after I completed airbrushing the initial scheme. I’ve since applied a coat of Future, applied the decals ad sealed them with another layer of Future. Once the future was dry, I applied a semi-gloss layer using a mixture of Tamiya Flat Base, Future and Tamiya thinner. It’s my opinion that this mixture allows me to work with the oil washes and filters a little better than if it were a completely flat or dull surface.
I’ve started applying the washes, oil filters and dry brushing to the model and the scheme looks more uniform and blended together. I’ll take some pictures this weekend and post them up for a comparison.
Cheers…
